The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this afternoon concluded its seventieth session after adopting concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bolivia and Nicaragua.
The concluding observations and recommendations will be available on the of the session on Monday, 18 October.
In his concluding remarks, Mohamed Ezzeddine Abdel Moneim, Committee Chair, said the Committee had engaged with the delegations of Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bolivia and Nicaragua in many ways, both in person and remotely. He regreted that in one case the delegation of a State party did not provide responses to the Committee.
The Chair said that this was the first time the Committee was meeting in person since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. All issues relating to the pandemic came under the Committee’s mandate. The Committee had published guidelines on the management of the pandemic and vaccines, which he hoped would receive the attention they deserved. The meetings were carried out in hybrid mode. The Committee was very much aware that the pandemic had affected the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights and how critical it was to pursue the important work of the Committee, despite the numerous challenges which it was determined to face. The Committee looked forward to being able to welcome numerous stakeholders to the meeting room again, in particular the non-governmental organizations which had followed the Committee’s work closely and supported its activities over the years.
Regarding the Committee’s work under the Optional Protocol to the Covenant, the Committee had examined three communications, declaring two of them inadmissible, according to the requirements set by the Optional Protocol. The Committee found a violation of the Covenant under the Optional Protocol in one communication. The Committee also decided to discontinue the examination of 12 individual communications. Under the follow-up to views mechanism, the Committee had examined the implementation of three views on individual communications and its report on follow-up to views would be made public.
The Committee had been working on other matters, including on two general comments. The draft of the general comment on Covenant obligations related to land was being discussed and the Chair expected it would be submitted by the rapporteurs to the next session of the Committee.
The Committee adopted its annual report regarding the sixty-ninth and seventieth sessions.
In conclusion, the Chair said that at the seventy-first session, the Committee would review reports of Bahrain, Belarus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Serbia and Uzbekistan. The seventy-first session of the Committee is scheduled to be held from 14 February to 4 March 2022. The Chair said he hoped that it would be an “in person” session and that the Committee would continue its regular review of State party reports, and other regular work, together, in Geneva and in the presence of the delegations and civil society stakeholders.
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